From S-badged Audis to factory AMG specials from Mercedes-Benz to V-rated Cadillacs to F-tuned Lexuses, it seems every luxury automaker has some sort of sporting division now to create hotter models. While this competition is all pretty hot these days, the first to have such an entity in house was BMW, which started BMW Motorsport GmbH as a separate subsidiary in May 1972.

Today, it goes by the simple name of BMW M, its tri-color logo and signature M tacked onto the hood of some of the fastest sedans and SUVs on the road. But the division started not as a way to sharpen street cars but as a way to consolidate the various motorsports efforts under one flag.

BMW M1

Their successes on the track are legion: absolute dominance in Formula 2 in the 1970s and 1980s with a 16-valve version of the 2002′s famous M10 four-cylinder engine; European Touring Car titles earned in 1973 and consecutively from 1975 through 1979 with the 3.0CSL “Batmobile”; IMSA GT title in 1975, including a win at the Sebring 12 Hours; an overall win at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1976; touring car dominance again in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the box-flared M3 which nabbed titles in World, European and German (DTM) series. The division was renamed BMW M in 1993 with a focus on creating roadgoing cars only. Soon after they formed BMW Motorsport Ltd. to concentrate the racing efforts. More titles followed, including overall wins at Le Mans in 1995 and 1999 with BMW-powered vehicles; various GT titles in the late 1990s in the United States with the second-generation M3; a handful of F1 victories with Williams in the early 2000s and one, lone victory as an engine and chassis manufacturer in F1 in 2008 before they pulled the plug to concentrate on ALMS and touring car racing.

Nelson Piquet during the GP of Brazil, 1983 in the Brabham BMW BT-52

The high point of M’s on-track prowess may very well have been Nelson Piquet’s 1983 Formula 1 driver’s title at the wheel of the BMW-powered Brabham BT-52, the first turbocharged car to win an F1 title. The M12/13 engine at the heart of the BT-52 had its origins in the humble M10 engine found under the hood of the 2002 and many other Neue Klasse BMW models built from the 1960s through the late 1980s. The race engine, which developed up to 800hp in race trim and much more qualifying trim, had a 16-valve head and a seriously robust block and internals quite a bit removed from that street engine. BMW engine guru Paul Rosche admits that they never knew how much power the engine could make: “It must have been about 1,400hp, but we don’t know the exact figure since the engine dynamometer didn’t go beyond 1280hp.” BMW’s last turbocharged F1 win came in 1986 with Gerhard Berger for the Benetton team in Mexico City.

BMW M1

The M division got their ears wet building their first production car with the mid-engined M1, a 165 MPH missile for the street that debuted in 1978. Featuring a 277hp, 24-valve inline-six with individual throttle bodies for each cylinder, the wedge-shaped M1 forever changed perceptions about BMW. Not long after, they built the first M535i, a four-door sedan with an uprated, 218hp version of the 635CSi’s 12-valve six-cylinder engine. In the mid-1980s, M versions of first the 6 Series and later the 5 Series were released with a version of the M1′s engine that made 286hp (EPA-compliant U.S. versions in the late 1980s were rated at 256hp).

BMW M6

Perhaps the most iconic vehicle to ever wear the M badge was the first generation M3, known to aficionados by its internal model designation, E30, the M3 became a dominant player in World, European and national touring car championships between 1987 and 1993. Although not all that light by contemporary standards, the wildly flared car is today praised for its balance, handling and sharp reflexes as well as its high-strung, 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine that produced almost 200hp. While that car was still in production, BMW partnered with McLaren, providing a 618hp, 6.1-liter V-12 engine for the F1 supercar that remains a high-water mark for performance cars two decades on. A largely unmodified version of the F1 took the 24 Hours of Le Mans title in 1995. A similar version of that engine powered the 1999 BMW V-12 LMR that also triumphed at Le Mans.

Engine from the BMW M5, 1989-1995

In the 1990s, six-cylinder M versions of the 5 Series sedan and wagon (alas, for Europe only) arrived, as did a short two-year run of the 850CSi, a near-400hp version of the V-12-powered 8 Series that was an M car in all but name, having been designed and built by the special division. A new M3 with a six-cylinder engine made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic, even though the U.S. version was little more than a warmed-over version of the standard 3 Series six-cylinder powerplant even as Europe (and Canada!) got the full M version. At the tail end of the decade, the Z3 roadster and coupe got the M treatment, spawning the M roadster and M coupe, two vehicles that simply wore the M badge and no other model designation.

A second six-cylinder M3 debuted in 2000, its engine now homologated for worldwide production in very similar trim, the U.S. version making 333hp at just shy of 8,000 RPM. From 2005, an F1-inspired, ultra-high RPM V-10 found its way under the hood of the M5 and M6 and later a V-8 version was fitted to the most recent M3. BMW made a point of stressing the “high-RPM concept” of M power, even as many of Audi’s S cars and Mercedes-Benz’s AMG products were using forced induction. And, more likely than not, even as their own engineers were back in the skunk works producing the turbocharged versions of the latest M cars.

Two generations of BMW M5 and M1

Today, virtually every standard model produced by BMW gets an M version, including the X5 and X6 SUVs, each powered by an innovative 550hp, twin-turbocharged V-8 that has its intake on the outside of the cylinder heads and its exhaust an intertwined, serpentine mix inside the V, a space it shares with the turbos and catalytic converters. The new M5 and M6 use a version of that engine, which makes astounding levels of torque to go along with that power. Although not intended for the American market, there are even full-on diesel models, with exclusive engines, in the M stable.